Wine market in Spain

The Spanish wine industry is heavily oriented towards export. Around two-thirds of the country’s wine production is exported:^[3] in 2024, the export amounted to 1,935.3 million liters (the equivalent of 2580.4 mln bottles) worth €2,977.8 million. It is important that 17% of its value and 55% of its volume correspond to wine in bulk.^[4]

Spanish wine is one of the cheapest in the world, while often providing extremely high value for consumers. The average price is merely €1.15 per bottle in export prices, compared to the EU average of €2.70 per bottle, according to OIV data.

To sell their wines at higher prices is one of the greatest challenges for the Spanish wine industry. There is a slow positive trend here, with prices slightly growing. However, Spanish wines remain dramatically underrepresented in the US market, the most lucrative wine market in the world.

Spain is home of Europe’s largest wine producer, J. García Carrión (Rioja brands Antaño and Pata Negra and a Cava brand Jaume Serra). Another similar-scale producer, Felix Solis, owns the brands Viña Albali and Mucha Mas. Despite the production volume of several hundreds of million bottles per year, the wines of both companies are made in traditional regional styles (in the sense of post-phylloxera 20th-entury tradition) while being very inexpensive.

In 2025, the former Spanish assets of Pernod-Ricard (including the Rioja brand Campo Viejo) were acquired by Vinarchy, a transnational company descended from Australian-based Accolade Wines.

Cooperatives play a big role in the industry. There are about 420 of them, generating around €1.2 billion in revenue.^[5] One of the largest is the Galician Martin Codax, with about 20 million bottles per year.^[6] The popular export brand Paco & Lola belongs to the cooperative Sociedad Cooperativa Vitivinícola Arousana. In general, there is no significant difference in quality between Spanish cooperatives and private production companies.

Compiled and checked by Ilya Zabolotnov